Note: If libsdl1.2debian-pulseaudio will not install for you, do the following two things instead:

Code:

sudo apt-get install libsdl1.2debian-all

and add this to ~/.profile :

Code:

# Make SDL audio work properly with Pulse
#export SDL_AUDIODRIVER=pulse

Both libsdl1.2debian-pulseaudio and libsdl1.2debian-all contain that patched Pulse driver, all just requires you to explicitly use Pulse with the SDL_AUDIODRIVER environment variable. --End Update--

5) Set up device chooser
Go to Applications>Sound & Video>PulseAudio Device Chooser
It will show up as a plug in notification area.
Left click, click Preferences, check Start applet on session login.

6) RESTART THE COMPUTER!
Everything should be set up now. You should now be able to play audio through both ALSA, esd, and Pulse applications at the same time, and everything will show up in the Device Chooser as a separate, configurable stream.

Re: How To: The (almost) Perfect Pulse Audio Setup

I believe some additional steps will be required, these steps give you the default 2 channel setup. If you search the forums some more, I think I may have seen something about getting 5.1 sound to work with Pulse, so you might try that after this. I myself don't have the hardware to test it.

Re: How To: The (almost) Perfect Pulse Audio Setup

Re: How To: The (almost) Perfect Pulse Audio Setup

Do note that Skype won't work until they change how it interacts with ALSA. There is a workaround which dumbs down pulse, disabling stuff like automatic device detection and volume settings individual to apps. If, like me, you only use Skype for the chat anyway, you can grab the OSS version for the time being, and alter your shortcuts to launch it with padsp. The sound stutters, so your voice chat experience may be mediocre, but stuttering "new message" notifications don't bother me much.

I downloaded it (Skype OSS), extracted it into /opt/skype.oss, then made a wrapper script and saved it as /usr/local/bin/skype.oss. Off the top of my head: